The Clancy Prize

The Religious Art Exhibition for Sydney Catholic Schools, The Clancy Prize, will be held from 17 March to 31 March 2017. The official opening and awards night will take place from 6pm on Friday 17 March 2017. The exhibition will be hosted by Australian Catholic University at the McGlade Gallery, Strathfield Campus. The quality of this contemporary exhibition space provides a fantastic backdrop for this showcase of outstanding student work in the Visual Arts.

The new Clancy Prize theme coincides with the Church’s Holy Jubilee Year of Mercy:

“A little mercy makes the world less cold and more just.” Pope Francis

An information sheet accompanying this letter provides more detail on the theme.

Of critical importance is the relationship between the artwork and the accompanying artist’s statement. This should make explicit the ways in which the work responds to the theme. Teachers are asked to emphasise with their students the importance of a clear and explicit link between the artist’s statement and the submitted work. Where possible, teachers are asked to encourage participation in the Clancy Prize by devoting some class time to aspects of the prize and providing opportunities for students to dedicate some time for the making of works for the exhibition.

Awards within the Clancy Prize and Art Exhibition are as follows:

The Clancy Prize – $2,000

The Executive Director’s Award

$1,000 for the student

$1,000 for the school

Work Exhibited for 12 months at St Martha’s, Leichhardt

Brian Jordan Prize – $1,000

The Monsignor Doherty Prize – $500

ACU School of Arts and Sciences will award three x $100 prizes

ACU School of Education will award three x $100 prizes

Sponsors’ Awards

Each year the judges have expressed an appreciation of the quality of works provided by students in Years 7 – 10 and I would like to encourage entries from Years 7 to 10, especially collaborative works. Arrangements for the submission of Year 12 works should occur with students prior to the conclusion of their final HSC examination.

The opportunity for students to offer their works for sale will be provided in the conditions of entry document. On submission of artist statements, students will be asked to identify if they are interested in offering their work for sale and to nominate a price. Works will be identified during the exhibition by a sticker which will indicate that the work can be purchased. Arrangements for purchasing a work will be made through the curator of the exhibition. The curator will determine if the price asked is reasonable and if the price is seen as unrealistic, the work will not be offered for sale. Students who do offer their works for sale will also be invited to donate 10% of the purchase price to either the St Vincent de Paul Society or to Caritas Australia.

Collection of artworks by the due date after the exhibition is the responsibility of the school or student. Please note that there are no facilities for storage of artworks beyond the date of collection. Sydney Catholic Schools and ACU will take no responsibility for artworks that are not collected.

To submit student entries for the prize and exhibition schools are asked to:

I am sure that the 2017 Clancy Art Prize and Religious Art Exhibition will continue to grow in the quality and numbers of entries, for this celebration of the creativity and spirituality of our students.

The Kindergarten-to-HSC pathway for gifted students at Sydney Catholic schools has strengthened with the introduction of new criteria for Year 6 students to enter the Newman Selective Gifted Education Program.